Roland V-Synth Book page 41

Designer: Stephane Pigeon
008:Voco Bass
V-Synth analog oscillators may be considered as the Sound
designer's "Swiss Army Knife".
By offering sine, square and triangular waveforms, these
oscillators instantly provide the characteristic sound of the
"traditional" synthesizer back at the time where everything was
analog. These oscillators are best described as primitive and
static, but very powerful: the basic sound they offer literally
jumps straight onto listener's face! By slowing the time down to
zero, Variphrase is able to turn any PCM sample into a static
sound whose potential power is comparable to the one offered
by those analog waveforms. Start from an initialized patch,
choose a PCM oscillator, enable both Variphrase and Robot
functions then make sure Time Offset parameter is set to Zero:
the Frozen World then welcomes you!
Voco Bass has been designed while experimenting such static
waves and browsing through various "frozen" PCM samples. This
patch makes use of the "Make A Groove" waveform, frozen
018:Pulsatronic
Pulsatronic perfectly illustrates different key-features inside a
single powerful patch. First, the arpeggiator, which here turns a
simple key-stroke into a rich up-and-down pattern. Settings can
be customized from the Common/Arpeggio page where one
may chose a shorter Duration for example. Then, the
combination of both VariPhrase and analog oscillators, achieving
a pleasant tonal balance. In this patch, the VariPhrase oscillator
is used to produce some crisp digital sounds, while its analog
counterpart adds more body to the patch. Then, the innovative
110:Sidewalk
The Side Band Filter represents one of V-Synth unique features.
This filter shapes noise-like spectrums into musical waveforms by
removing all non-harmonic frequencies found in the original
source. Its effect is best heard through the preset patch called
[111:SBSync'd]. In this preset, a motor noise has been used as
main oscillator source. This motor can be heard by turning the
COSM1/P1 knob all the way up. By slowly decreasing the same
parameter, the noise-like content of the original waveform will
gradually dissapear until only harmonic frequencies remain. Once
all non-harmonic frequencies are gone, the resulting sound can
be played through the whole keyboard like any other musical
instrument.
right behind waveform's start point. To preview the resulting
sound, from the Front Panel, switch all effects off, mute OSC2,
disable COSM1 and hit a key. The static waveform you now hear
quickly becomes annoying if left as it is. The programmer bought
this patch into life by assigning the Formant parameter to the
keyboard velocity (see OSC1/Formant page). Furthermore,
bright hi-frequency sonic components were filtered out by using
a Dynamic time variant filter (please now enable COSM1) and a
sub-oscillator has been added by means of our Swiss Army Knife
emulating a sine waveform (now enable OSC2). This sub adds
an extra-bass character to the sound. At last, effects have been
use to polish the patch and give its final shape thanks to the
Analog Phasing effect (now enable MFX and Chorus)
Additional playability is offered by means of the Time-Trip pad
(the X/Y mode alters both formant and filter COSM1 cutoff
frequency) and Aftertouch (increases COSM1 cutoff frequency).
Side-Band Filter which brings the noise bursts produced by the
first Oscillator into tune. This filter is mainly responsible for the
particular tonal character of this patch. Its effect can easily be
heard by toggling the COSM1 structure switch ON or OFF.
Furthermore, this patch also illustrates the flexibility of the
analog section, which allows the user to gradually change the
tonal characteristic of the sound while waving his hand around
the D-Beam.
The distinctive sound of [110:Sidewalk] has been achieved by
this same particular filter and the COSM1/P1 knob can be used
once again to increase or decrease the non-harmonic content of
the filter's output. In order to discover which sample has been
used to create the rhythmic feel hidden behind the patch, grab
the COSM1/P1 potentiometer and put all non-harmonic
frequencies back into the sound! Aren't you surprised of what
you now hear?
41